Local business's food delivery offers quality and convenience

A brand new  business idea allows customers to shop at all of their favourite local stores through one simple website, offering both quality and convenience.
Yummy founder Julian Wilkinson in the company's warehouse in East Heckington.Yummy founder Julian Wilkinson in the company's warehouse in East Heckington.
Yummy founder Julian Wilkinson in the company's warehouse in East Heckington.

Yummy is a food delivery service created by Boston-based magazine publisher Julian Wilkinson, which delivers produce from local butchers, bakers, fruit and vegetable suppliers, fishmongers and other local food businesses straight to your door.

Mr Wilkinson came up with the idea for Yummy following the success of Lincolnshire Pride magazine and bridal website UKbride.co.uk during a social chat, as the team were at home unable to work during the first lockdown.

Yummy spokesman Rob Davis explained: “We always had an idea to champion local products, suppliers and farmers and Julian had been thinking of how to do it with utilising the convenience of supermarket home delivery but instead of mass produced products from factories, would use fresh, local products.”

The Yummy team outside the company's offices in Boston.The Yummy team outside the company's offices in Boston.
The Yummy team outside the company's offices in Boston.

A plan was put into action over the summer of how to launch this idea.

The company drew inspiration from national food delivery businesses, but wanted to give the customer the convenience of having the fresh, local produce delivered to their door but but were being given the chance of being able to cook whatever they want and not be restricted to recipe cards provided.

“We wanted to give customers the best case scenario between quality and convenience,” Rob said.

Customers visit www.yummy.co.uk and browse through the different products available from each supplier and add the desired items to one basket.

Then each day, Yummy’s couriers visit each of their suppliers in turn and collect each of the different products in the customers’ orders, pack them safely and deliver them using their fleet of refrigerated vehicles, keeping produce cool using ice packs.

The customer’s Yummy boxes are then collated at the business’s warehouse in East Heckington and delivered to their doorstep on the pre-booked delivery slot.

The logistics of how to collect and deliver the produce provided Julian and the team a bit of a headache:

“We had to figure out whether we use couriers or have people use their own transport to bring the produce, but we had to make sure the food reached people safely so took the decision to have our own vans,” Rob said.

“It’s been a steep learning curve, and it was a challenge, we didn’t want this to end up being more expensive than supermarkets. It’s a deceptively simple idea and its taken a lot of head-scratching to get the service right.”

Initially the business was launched with suppliers in just the Boston area, but now Yummy has suppliers in Sleaford, Horncastle, Lincoln, and Spalding, and hopes to soon be able to deliver to and have suppliers within most of Lincolnshire in 2021.

At the time of going to print, Yummy has already sold 42,814 items since the website went live on June 24.

Rob said: “What's taken us by surprise is the fantastic feedback we’ve had, people really like our service and we’ve got a great working relationship with our suppliers, who are earning hundreds of pounds a day through us.”

To find out more, visit www.yummy.co.uk or call 0800 1223939.